SIGNATURE

(Lat. sig natura.) In Music, the flats and sharps placed after the clef, at the beginning of the staff, which afFect, throughout the movement, all notes of the same letter. Signature. In Printing, a letter of the alphabet placed at the bottom of the first page of each sheet of a work, to denote, alphabetically, the order of the sheets. It is customary to commence with B on the first sheet of the body. of the work, and to go regularly through the alphabet, with the exception of the letters J, V, and W, which are never used as signatures; and which had, in fact, no existence in the alphabet at the time of the invention of printing; ^^, expre ing both I and J; 5H, both U and V; and 23SH, the double letter W. If the work extend to more sheets in number than there are letters in the alphabet, the succeeding sheets go on with a second alphabet, which commences with A, and both the letters are usually given; in this manner, A A, or A a, and sometimes, to avoid the repetition, thus, 2 A. If a third alphabet be nece ary, it is always, at the present day, placed with the number before it, as 3 A. 1116 [s. 1129]